I’d like to think I have a pretty good memory, but there are parts of my life that, try as I might, I simply can’t recall.

I can’t remember what my parents gave me for my eleventh birthday.

I can’t remember why, when I was twelve, I thought it would be a good idea to deliberately touch my hair to a shimmering-with-heat electric hotplate.

I can’t remember what happened in American Gods, although I remember thinking it was fantastic.

I can’t remember when I stopped eating half a hot buttered (okay, Nuttelexed) bagel for afternoon tea every day after school.

I can’t remember what it’s like not to yearn for travel in a way that, honest-to-goodness, sometimes feels like I’m endlessly stamping my foot inside.

I can’t remember eating this Tesco Finest Organic Ecuadorian 39% Milk Chocolate with Caramelised Salted Almonds. However, I have the photos and tasting notes to prove that I did, so let’s have a go at this review anyway.

I do remember where I bought this chocolate. It was in a Tesco supermarket in Gatwick, where I stayed for one night at a lovely B&B before my flight to Germany the next day. I remember finding Neighbours playing on the television (and not watching it), and I remember talking to the female B&B owner about allergy-friendly desserts that she could make for her guests.

I don’t remember that this chocolate was comprised of 39% milk chocolate (that’s only 1% less than Nestlé’s “dark” chocolate chips. Harrumph to Nestlé, say I.) I don’t remember that 25% of this Tesco chocolate was, in fact, caramelised salted almonds and not chocolate, but my photo of the packet says so, and photos don’t lie.

Except when they’re of photo-shopped celebrities, but that’s a whole ‘nother story.

I don’t remember that the aroma was strong in butter toffee notes, and that the first bite similarly delivered flavours of toffee and nut brittle followed quickly by zings of salt.

I don’t remember that, at the same time, every bite of the chocolate was perfumed with floral almond notes, even the nibbles that were ostensibly almond-free. I don’t remember writing that “the salt doesn’t punch you in the face but is there, always, with almonds constantly threading through and complexifying the flavour”.

I don’t remember thinking that the chocolate had cream and caramel flavours as well as something enticingly dusky in tone, like golden syrup mixed with nuttiness and caramel fudge.

I don’t remember any of the above, but my words, saved months ago on the computer, prove that I did, in fact, once upon a time, enjoy this chocolate.

And who needs memories when you have tangible typed proof?

Exactly.

Question Time: What can’t you remember? (Please ignore that fact that this question is a contradiction in terms. I have faith in your ability to answer regardless.)

I don’t remember that Tesco always seemed to me a shop for old ladies pulling fold-up roll-y carts. But what I forgot to remember but then remembered that I’d forgot was that I was confusing ‘Tesco’ with some retailer in France of whom the name currently escapes me. What is the shop that plaid plastic tote-roll-ys are associated with?

Am I crazy?

I am forgetful.

Oi. I found it. Tati!

Tati. Not at all like Tesco, really. I had to google Montpellier, and then use the creeper view to move along the old bus line that I used to take, until I came across the store. You’re welcome for the most useless comment ever.

Emma, no comment that mentions France and thereby delivers unto me a bucketful of my own memories could ever be useless. Wait, scratch that! No comment from you could ever be useless. Yes, that’s a better reply 🙂

I must say, I never visited a Tati when I was in Paris! But I was a frequent shopper at Monoprix, with a bit of Picard and the Bio-something organic ones too 🙂 But I think those old ladies with roll-y carts were everywhere.

Oh, this post has made me do some internal foot stamping of my own. I miss Tesco’s. I miss Sainsbury’s. I miss Marks and Spencer’s food hall. I definitely miss the Selfridge’s food hall. I even miss Waitrose, even though it is really too posh for me to shop at. At least this chocolate reassures me that the UK food world is still going strong 🙂 I’m glad you did find those photos and tasting notes!

Oh, Marks and Spencer’s!! I fell deeply in love with that place, and for three nights in a row was buying two different prepared meals and multiple desserts to eat each night (they weren’t very big, and I have an very stretchy stomach), and then realised with horror that I was spending the equivalent of at least one-and-a-half restaurant meals each night. Je ne regrette rien.

And I super miss the prepared individual Banoffee Pies that I found in Tesco and Sainsbury, too.

Do you remember writing this post?
I diagnose this situation as automatism – you buy, taste and review automatically/subconsciously. Maybe through advertisements or other methods the chocolate manufacturers have hypnotized you:)

I know that I’ve seen possibly ten billion films in my time, but I never remember that I’ve seen a film before, until I’m halfway through watching it for the second time, then I exclaim, ‘Oh! I’ve seen this _______ happens, and _____ dies and ______ live ____ ever after’ – ruining it for those who haven’t seen it. Fail.

*laughs* That’s brilliant! And also awful for those you’re seeing the movie with, but mostly just hilarious. I remember doing something similar when I watched Clueless for the first time. Halfway through, I suddenly figured out the Emma connection and blurted out what would be happening with every character from that moment on. Friends were displeased.

I don’t remember reading many of the books I have in my bookshelf…. until I start to read them again, then after about the first third I do normally remember again… and then I finish it anway, because I want to be sure of the details.

Makes perfect sense to me! As a kid, I reread all my favourite books over and over and over, and that was without having forgotten them in the first place. There’s a special joy in rereading for the details, I think 🙂

LOL! I reaaaaaally like how you can remember exactly what you were thinking and doing at the time you were eating a food. I wish I could do that more too! More interesting to write about other than just food itself, methinks. Dad is a big kid when it comes to choco bars, will have to get this for him next time I’m in Tesco, wee! =D

“Next time you’re in Tesco”? Do you go to England a lot? TAKE ME WITH YOU!! *ahem* Aw, thanks! For me, food is special because of the stories that accompany it, so I always try to thread that through my blog too 🙂

OMG SOZZZZZZZZZZZZ… I can’t believe I got Tesco mixed up with COSTCO hahahahhaa!!! How embarrassing, Winston. Anyway, I totes agree with you. I love food and all but for me, what really makes me enjoy a meal at the end of the day is really the company more than the food. LOL, Tesco BUAHAHHA

I can’t remember why we were out of touch for so long, but I certainly CAN remember why it is that we were such good friends in the first place 🙂 i also remember wondering whether or not “Tesco’s Finest” was a sneaky way of chargin more for what used to be regular Tesco products…

Aw, SQUISH!! I prefer to forget those years when we weren’t in touch; it was like a part of my soul was missing. 😛 Also, thank you a million, million, squillion times for your recent email. I promise I’ll reply soon, but life has been wearing me down a bit lately, so I wanted to wait to write when I was actually feeling bubbly 🙂 But your email meant so much, so much. *hugs*

Blogging is all about helping us to remember – I sometimes look at blogging that i did years ago (scary that I have been blogging that long) and can barely remember making stuff – while other parts of the posts I remember so clearly – I find it frustrating when memories fade and you remember it so vaguely that sometimes it feels that you just remember how you felt when you remembered it rather than when you felt it! But I am glad you have at least remembered to blog about this chocolate – though it sounds like you need another taste to refresh your memories 🙂

Oh, I agree absolutely with all of this Johanna! I’m so grateful that I started this blog during my travels because, as you say, sometimes I’ll find a post about an adventure that I’d completely forgotten having, and it makes me smile to relive it all over again. Teehee, I wouldn’t turn down another taste of this… particularly if it meant going to England again to get it 😉

You’re doing better than me then, I’ve got Alzheimer’s at 24! 😉 The worst is when someone asks me, on a Monday, what I did on the weekend, and I completely freeze due to remembering absolutely nothing of what I did 😛 (I usually remember after a few moments, though.)

Hehe I love how you wrote this post, so clever!! And I can totally relate. While I have a grereeeeeeeeeeat memory with people, their names, where they live, etc., (and it’s creepy too) I cannot remember anything about what I watched in a movie, the scenes, the characters…Not even in Disney movies! lol 😛 ONCE in a while I’ll forget something like, what I did on so-and-so birthday.

But as one commenter mentioned, blogging is a great way to remember stuff, so I’m so thankful for this! Btw, this sounds like a delicious chocolate! Do you share with others or are you able to finish absolutely everything by yourself? 🙂

Aw, thank you Ellie! That means a lot, because sometimes I struggle with how to make the chocolate reviews interesting 🙂 Hmm… you’re doing much better than me, because I often forget not only what I did on my birthday, but how old I am and when my birthday is!

Share? What is this “share” you speak of? You seem hesitant to believe that I truly do often eat a block of chocolate a day 😉

“What Can’t You Remember”? Ooh, that sounds like the title of a bestselling novel with several slightly mystical stories occurring in parallel over many time periods (including one in present-day and one in a medieval-esque setting) which all somehow intertwine at a crucial point.

I actually have a brutally crisp memory for all kinds of things, especially those I’d like to forget – but it can be fun to be able to recount the outfit I wore to my first school dance in 1996, things like that, at the drop of a hat.

Sounds like Tesco’s chocolate is a bit of alright – I love salted almonds more than I could ever love them plain, so putting them in chocolate makes total sense to me. And as always, I love your detailed notes on chocolate’s flavour, even when you don’t remember them!

Laura, can you please write that book? It sounds awesome. Please ensure that one of the parallel stories involves tiger-unicorn hybrids with wings. Thank you, and I’ll take three signed copies.

Oooh, I’m so envious of your memory-brain-mind-special-sparkly! I wish I could remember every I wore to my school discos (blue light discos, natch) but mostly, when I think of those, I find it hilarious how we were locked inside. And I remember how often girls would start crying over boyfriend dramas. And how there were baby mice in some of the lockers. Hey, look at me go! Lots of memories! 😀

Andy is (annoyingly) reading over my shoulder at the moment, and he saw your photo of the chocolate bar and read out loud “Caramelised Salted Onions”. I had to look twice before I registered that a chocolate bar with onions would probably not be so nice. In any case, not as crunchy.

I remember the birthday when you took me (with Elly and Kate) to see Looking for Alibrandi, and gave me the embroidered jeans I’d had my heart set on for months, and baked me the poppyseed cake I requested, which I ate while wearing the jeans after the movie! Does that make up for it? Can I keep the TV?

So as a mother of a child who turned 11 yesterday, I could have saved myself a whole lot of maternal angst and not worried about what to get him for a present? (The discerning young man these days wishes for Dr Who cards specially bought from England, other Dr Who stuff, series 14 of the Simpsons, and a cheese tshirt). Glad the chocolate was nice if not memorable.

Somehow I think that if I said “yes” to this, your son would quickly learn to hate me 😛 And, actually, I think I would definitely have remembered being given nothing at all… so I think your maternal angst was necessary. 😀

I have a pretty good memory but it is amazing what you forget. On the weekend I was doing some tidying and I came across my box of stuff from year 12. In it there was a letter I wrote to myself when school was over. I went on and on about how hot it was. How the heat had made exams awful and my car wouldn’t start etc, etc. I remember loads of that period, but I have no memory of this record breaking heat. Random isn’t it?

That chocolate sounds good, but your failed memory of it makes me think that maybe my calories would be better spent elsewhere.

Maybe, because you wrote it down, your mind knew it didn’t have to hold onto the memory of the heat because it was there, on paper, waiting for you anyway? Yes, I should definitely have been a psychologist 😛

I actually think it was quite delicious, but calories are usually better spent on dark chocolate anyway!

I love that question! What can’t I remember, hmmm….!
I can’t remember a lot to be honest; just getting myself to work with everything I need is a mission 🙂
This chocolate looks right up my street – I love your tasting descriptions – as do the tuna croquettes in your last post – and cool that you got to do that interview, she sounds lovely!

I almost can’t remember what I am supposed to be writing here. But forgetting. I am ashamed to say I’ve forgotten so many of my kid’s birthdays, I mean really. Okay they are big now and there are four of them and we moved around a lot, but I never really recorded much after a while and I have forgotten so much!!

One thing I always bring up with Brad is that I can’t remember what we talked about when we met for our first coffee ever. Which really bothers me. Cause I do want to know what we talk about, because I still can’t figure out why we’re together sometimes. Haha!

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About

Hannah. Writer, editor, firm believer in socks, gin, laughter, buttered toast, cheesecake, and semicolons. Currently back in Canberra after two years living in Canada; heart tingling to see what happens next.